Christian preachers – A multi-million dollar business

Christian preachers – A multi-million dollar business

July 14, 2008 by Rachel Chitra

I have recieved a number of nasty comments when I posted on certain aspects I did’nt like about the Dinakaran Ministry. The comments, which did not have *$&^#* filthy words, I have approved and posted.

Let me clarify. I am not a Hindu. Neither do I belong to the RSS, Bajrang Dal or Sangh Parivar.

Long long ago, when I was reading “Death of a Guru” by Rabi Maharaj, I came upon a passage. In that Rabi talks about how he became disgusted with one Hindu guru, who became richer and richer with his “Get rich” mantra. He used to tell his followers: “I will pray for you. Look how God has blessed me. He will bless you also if you do such and such pooja.” The people used to pay him huge sums for the pooja or the prayer. The net result was: The yogi became richer and richer, while his followers became poorer and poorer.

Moral of the story: Preachers are getting richers day by day. And it is no longer considered shameful if a preacher is a millionaire. He is apparently ‘blessed by God.’

This list contains details of property and money in the individual preacher’s name. It does not include the net asset worth of his/her ministry or churches.

A list of the millionaire preachers:

John Wesley – (As per today’s economy $ 1.4 million a year)

Benny Hinn – (multi-millionaire. Net assets worth $ 705 million)

Joyce Meyer – ($ 4.28 million corporate jet + $ 1.7 million worth houses. She also pays herself a salary of $ 2, 08,200 from the Joyce Meyer Ministry account)

Pat Robinson – ($ 11 billion net assets worth. He’s well known for his rabid and nasty attacks on homosexuals, Russians, Communists, feminists and the tax collectors)

Bill Creflo Dollar – (Like his name, Creflo preaches the “Get Rich” Chrisitian policy. His current earnings are $ 48 million)

Rory and Wendy – (The wonder couple on God TV, who weasle out donations for themselves and the other preachers on air. Net asset worth $ 36.5 million)

And since the details of the property of pastors in India is not made available to the public. We can only make surmises.

In India, politicians, film stars, industrialists or the sons of industrialists get kidnapped and a ransom is demanded.

Joining this elite league are our christian pastors. The last we heard, Pastor R Mohan’s junior-pastor-son Sam got kidnapped. When the kidnappers wanted money they took him straight to the nearest ATM centre. He withdrew 5 lakhs and got it back in a day’s time. A few strings were pulled, police took action and nabbed the culprits after seeing the ATM’s video footage.

There is also another story about people closely related to this pastor:

The story goes… junior-pastor does’nt believe in caste. His father does. So when junior fell in love with a Dalit Christian girl, the family steps up pressure and tells him his Christian duty as a son is to follow his father’s commandments. After 7 years of resisting, junior finally gives up. He said goodbye to his sweetheart and married a chaste girl from his caste that his parents had chosen for him.

Even now in Nagercoil, there are churches in which Dalits sit in the last rows, while the upper-caste Christians sit in front. When a Dailt pastor was buried in a church cemetry in Nagercoil in 1997, upper-caste people dug out his body and threw it on the road. They also conducted a ceremony later, to purify the graveyard off the Dailt pastor’s presence.

Where is Christ in all this? Christ- the friend of the prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans (untouchables in those days) & Romans?

Recently, Deccan Chronicle had carried a report in which 70 Dalit Christians converted back to Hinduism, because of the caste discrimination they were facing from upper-caste Christians. What hopes, those people would have had when they converted to Christianity. They must have read about Christ’s life and felt the Christian way of life meant equality for all. When they learnt the theory and the practise are different …I guess they decided to go back to Hinduism.